The house adjacent to the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, which was
paid for in full, has been evacuated. The patriarchs, who have waited
for 2,000 years, will have to wait a little longer for their new
neighbors to get authorization from the Judea and Samaria Civil
Administration to move in.

The house in question has been dubbed the "house of contention." Some
have called the state of Israel the "land of contention" ever since
the Jews began returning to it in the second half of the 19th
century. Israel is independent, strong and thriving – that can be
called a land of contention. Anyone who is familiar with history
knows that the Jews are a people of contention, and have been for
thousands of years.

However, many Jews have grown tired of years-long contention. They
converted and forsook God, "the fountain of living waters, and hewed
them out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water" (Jeremiah
2:13). Other Jews courageously carried the torch, withstanding hatred
and contention, and passed it from generation to generation. It is
thanks to them that we have preserved our identity as Jews and were
lucky enough, after thousands of years of suffering, to see the land
of Israel resurrected - the historical Jewish homeland was liberated
and holy Jerusalem was rebuilt.

The accusation of "public disorder" has dogged the Jews for many
generations. Everywhere Jews have lived, they were a threat to public
order. Even these days, Jews living in the heart of Tel Aviv are
disturbing the world´s public order: Many people believe that if Tel
Aviv did not exist, the Iranians would have no need for a nuclear
bomb, and global oil prices would be fantastically low. For these
people, there is no difference between Tel Aviv´s luxury towers and
the modest house of contention in Hebron.

The return to Zion after 2,000 years of exile changed the rules of
the game in global Jewish history. It was a phenomenon never before
witnessed in human history – a dead language was revived; an entire
people that was valued less than dung established a powerful army and
cutting-edge technology. We did all of this to avoid being blamed by
the world for public disorder.

It is painful to hear the Judea and Samaria Civil Administration,
which is subordinate to the Israeli defense establishment, exploit
this claim about public disorder. A body that cannot enforce public
order in a place where Jews legally purchase land will not be able to
protect Jews´ right to live in Jerusalem, when the time comes.

Most of the Palestinian residents of Hebron have come to terms with
the fact that there are Jews who live among them. The moment the
Palestinian residents of Hebron realized that the Jews would not
tolerate another massacre like the 1929 Hebron massacre (the killing
of 67 Jews in Hebron, then part of the British Mandate of Palestine,
by Arabs incited to violence by rumors that Jews were massacring
Arabs) they reached the right conclusion: that reality is stronger
than any unbridled incitement. It is only the State Prosecutor´s
Office and the Civil Administration that have yet to understand that
the Jews have returned to Judea and Samaria for ever and ever, to
build and be built.

The public storm surrounding the "house of contention" in Hebron was
not a conflict between the Jews resettling there and the so-called
Palestinians. It was an internal Jewish dispute between the Israeli
majority – which feels a connection to its national heritage – and a
minority that feels that it can change the course of Jewish history
and make the Jews the punching bag of a cruel and alienated world,
within the tiny 1967 borders. Some of the world´s most deranged
individuals are concentrated in the Middle East, directly surrounding
the state of Israel.

Passover is the festival of freedom and represents a noble desire to
emancipate ourselves from the will of others. Let us hope that this
Passover we will be able to deliver ourselves from the self-imposed
enslavement created by our national inferiority complex.